Peter Bell the Third | Page 2

Peter Bell the Second,
Who henceforward must be
reckoned
The body of a double soul,
And that portion of the whole

Without which the rest would seem
Ends of a disjointed dream.--

And the Third is he who has
O'er the grave been forced to pass

To the other side, which is,--
Go and try else,--just like this.

Peter Bell the First was Peter
Smugger, milder, softer, neater,
Like
the soul before it is
Born from THAT world into THIS.
The next
Peter Bell was he,
Predevote, like you and me,
To good or evil as
may come;
His was the severer doom,--
For he was an evil Cotter,

And a polygamic Potter.
And the last is Peter Bell,
Damned since
our first parents fell,
Damned eternally to Hell--
Surely he deserves
it well!
PART 1.
DEATH.
1.
And Peter Bell, when he had been
With fresh-imported Hell-fire
warmed,
Grew serious--from his dress and mien
'Twas very plainly
to be seen
Peter was quite reformed.
2.
His eyes turned up, his mouth turned down;
His accent caught a
nasal twang;
He oiled his hair; there might be heard
The grace of
God in every word
Which Peter said or sang.
3.
But Peter now grew old, and had
An ill no doctor could unravel:

His torments almost drove him mad;--
Some said it was a fever
bad--
Some swore it was the gravel.
4.
His holy friends then came about,
And with long preaching and
persuasion
Convinced the patient that, without
The smallest shadow
of a doubt,
He was predestined to damnation.
5.
They said--'Thy name is Peter Bell;
Thy skin is of a brimstone
hue;
Alive or dead--ay, sick or well--
The one God made to rhyme
with hell;
The other, I think, rhymes with you.
6.

Then Peter set up such a yell!--
The nurse, who with some water
gruel
Was climbing up the stairs, as well
As her old legs could
climb them--fell,
And broke them both--the fall was cruel.

7.
The Parson from the casement lept
Into the lake of Windermere--

And many an eel--though no adept
In God's right reason for
it--kept
Gnawing his kidneys half a year.
8.
And all the rest rushed through the door
And tumbled over one
another,
And broke their skulls.--Upon the floor
Meanwhile sat
Peter Bell, and swore,
And cursed his father and his mother;
9.
And raved of God, and sin, and death,
Blaspheming like an
infidel;
And said, that with his clenched teeth
He'd seize the earth
from underneath,
And drag it with him down to hell.
10.
As he was speaking came a spasm,
And wrenched his gnashing
teeth asunder;
Like one who sees a strange phantasm
He lay,--there
was a silent chasm
Between his upper jaw and under.
11.
And yellow death lay on his face;
And a fixed smile that was
not human
Told, as I understand the case,
That he was gone to the
wrong place:--
I heard all this from the old woman.
12.
Then there came down from Langdale Pike
A cloud, with
lightning, wind and hail;
It swept over the mountains like
An
ocean,--and I heard it strike
The woods and crags of Grasmere vale.
13.
And I saw the black storm come
Nearer, minute after minute;

Its thunder made the cataracts dumb;
With hiss, and clash, and hollow
hum,
It neared as if the Devil was in it.
14.
The Devil WAS in it:--he had bought
Peter for half-a-crown;
and when
The storm which bore him vanished, nought
That in the
house that storm had caught

Was ever seen again.
15.
The gaping neighbours came next day--
They found all
vanished from the shore:
The Bible, whence he used to pray,
Half
scorched under a hen-coop lay;
Smashed glass--and nothing more!

PART 2.
THE DEVIL.
1.
The Devil, I safely can aver,
Has neither hoof, nor tail, nor sting;

Nor is he, as some sages swear,
A spirit, neither here nor there,
In
nothing--yet in everything.
2.
He is--what we are; for sometimes
The Devil is a gentleman;

At others a bard bartering rhymes
For sack; a statesman spinning
crimes;
A swindler, living as he can;
3.
A thief, who cometh in the night,
With whole boots and net
pantaloons,
Like some one whom it were not right
To mention;--or
the luckless wight
From whom he steals nine silver spoons.
4.
But in this case he did appear
Like a slop-merchant from
Wapping,
And with smug face, and eye severe,
On every side did
perk and peer
Till he saw Peter dead or napping.
5.
He had on an upper Benjamin
(For he was of the driving schism)

In the which he wrapped his skin
From the storm he travelled in,

For fear of rheumatism.
6.
He called the ghost out of the corse;--
It was exceedingly like
Peter,--
Only its voice was hollow and hoarse--
It had a queerish
look of course--
Its dress too was a little neater.
7.
The Devil knew not his name and lot;
Peter knew not that he was
Bell:
Each had an upper stream of thought,
Which made all seem as
it was not;
Fitting itself to all things well.
8.
Peter thought he had parents dear,
Brothers, sisters, cousins,
cronies,
In the fens of Lincolnshire;
He perhaps had found them
there
Had he gone and boldly shown his

9.
Solemn phiz in his own village;
Where he thought oft when a
boy
He'd clomb the orchard walls to pillage
The produce of his
neighbour's tillage,
With marvellous pride and joy.
10.
And the Devil thought he had,
'Mid the misery and confusion

Of an unjust war, just made
A fortune by